Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

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wehf100
GCR D11 4-4-0 'Improved Director'
Posts: 486
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:42 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

Post by wehf100 »

Hi all,

I haven't posted here for a long time (years!) but I have nether the less been dabbling in N gauge ex-GCR era in N gauge- working slowly to my aim of a scenic layout based on Woodhead route in the steam era.

I am really stuck because despite years of hoping that Farish/Bachmann would do the decent (and in my mind, logical) thing and scale down their 00 gauge LNER 04, it doesn't appear that they're going to do so any time soon. An ex-GCR layout without an 04 hauling a rake of minerals would be a poor showing indeed!

So I'm turning my mind to making my own. Problem is I can't think of any obvious way of doing it! I can't think of a decent proprietary mechanism small enough to sit under a scratchbuild body, and I don't think I'm up to a full scratchbuild of a running chassis in N gauge!

Anyone got any ideas how I could knock up an 04 in N gauge?

Cheers,
Will
Atso
LNER A3 4-6-2
Posts: 1383
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:58 pm
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

Post by Atso »

Hi Will,

Dapol 38xx isn't too far off in terms of wheelbase but you'll need to cobble up something for the tender (and mount the motor).
O4 Print Rough.jpg
A very rough and ready print a did well over a year ago (which wasn't supported correctly, as the chimney shows, and printed at a lower resolution). This was 'modified' from the original CAD I did several years back but some slight clearance issues and the lack of a suitable set of tender frames halted this project as being suitable for my Shapeways shop and other things took priority over building one for myself.

The firebox has been widened slightly to accommodate the Dapol gearbox, which annoyingly protrudes slightly further forward into the boiler. The big issue is getting clearance between the splashers and the wheels. Being an older CAD file, produced using a much earlier version of the programme I use, it isn't the most stable of things to work with and I think I'd be better off starting again from scratch.
Steve
Bedders
GER J70 0-6-0T Tram
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:08 am
Location: (North) Lincolnshire

Re: Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

Post by Bedders »

Nice to see you back on here Will, hope you start posting semi-regularly again :)
wehf100
GCR D11 4-4-0 'Improved Director'
Posts: 486
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:42 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

Post by wehf100 »

That's interesting Atso, the print does indeed look 'right' on a 38xx chassis. Am I right in thinking the dapol chassis has a motor in the tender driving the loco via a carden shaft? How is the pick up arranged? Does the tender need provision for pick ups?

My initial instinct was to find a suitable rolling chassis for the loco and plead with Union Mills to sell me a GCR tender drive separately.

Did you get as far as thinking how you'd approach the cylinders/motion?

Will
Atso
LNER A3 4-6-2
Posts: 1383
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:58 pm
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Building an N Gauge GCR 8K/ LNER 04- Ideas??

Post by Atso »

The 38xx chassis really is quite close to the O4 wheelbase. The 38xx does use Dapol's standard method of placing the motor in the tender and using a cardan shaft to transmit the power to the loco.

The cylinders on the print pictured above were made integral with the body and I'd purchased some slide bars from N Brass which did accept the Dapol crossheads with some material removed from both components.

The tender was (and still is) the sticking point as the Dapol system uses pinpoint split axle wheels for current collection (as does modern Farish). The Dapol system also uses fine wires to carry current between the locomotive and tender, but the screw points for these are part of the body moulding and far from easy to remove intact. For my D49, built using various Dapol components, I ended up soldering one end of the wires to pieces of phosphor bronze strip which, in turn, were epoxied to the loco body behind the drag beam. The other end of the wires were then connected up to the donor B1 tender frames as designed.

My current thoughts for the O4 tender would be to cast two separate frames in white metal, fit with bearing for the wheels and use self tapping screws to connect the wires, using a similar system to the D49 for the loco end. However, this would prevent the O4 being viable as a print on Shapeways and, either way, will require me to completely redesign the loco to fit the 38xx chassis properly. It will happen and might even become a kit but there are other things further up the queue at the moment I'm afraid.

The Union Mills tender drive would be a good alternative but you'll have to strip the drive chain out of the 38xx, I've not managed to persuade mine to come apart yet! However, my experience with the D49 and running the 38xx intact is that both locomotives are far better at low speeds than Union Mills (even the new motor version) and haulage isn't bad either - my D49 has been tested with ten Gresleys on the back and still has power to spare!
Steve
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